Could C++ Developers Handle an ABI Break Today?

Explore the evolving landscape of C++ ABI stability in this conference talk from CppCon 2025 that challenges conventional assumptions about the impact of future ABI breaks. Examine how the C++ Evolution Working Group's commitment to ABI stability may be based on outdated concerns, as Luis Caro Campos analyzes whether the C++ ecosystem has evolved enough to handle ABI changes more gracefully than in the past. Discover how the collective memory of the C++11 libstdc++ ABI updates in gcc 5.1 continues to influence decision-making, despite significant changes in both the language and tooling landscape over the past decade. Learn about the practical reality that many library authors are less cautious about ABI compatibility than standards committees and compiler vendors, meaning that linking objects built with different C++ standard levels often fails in real-world scenarios. Investigate how modern tooling solutions like Conan and vcpkg have evolved to handle ABI versioning through binary tagging systems, and examine similar approaches in other ecosystems that successfully manage ABI complexities. Gain insights into whether the C++ community may be overestimating the potential pain of future ABI breaks, presented by a JFrog Conan team member with extensive experience in C++ engineering, computer vision, and robotics who focuses on enabling C++ development at scale using modern DevOps practices.